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Civil society in the Philippines is not just an organization or entities. It has a power and
influence in the field of politics, economy and other sector of society. They created changes and
reform to the political structure in order to gain more power and control in the government. They
suggest solution and help the state in national development. They are partners of the government in
creating our present constitution in order to be recognized and give importance by the society and
by politicians. In section 23 of Article II of the 1987 constitution it states that “The state shall
encourage nongovernmental, community-based, or sectoral organizations that promote the welfare
of the nation”. The constitution gave power to represent the people especially the marginalized in
making decision on local and national issues of the state in order to hear their voices. It also
encourages the people to join such organization in order to help the state in nation building by
making a peaceful and healthy community. In addition with that, the 1991 local government code
made the nongovernmental organization involvement in society a mandatory one. The code
provides power to the nongovernmental organization, the right to participate and cooperate in the
areas of socioeconomic development and environmental protection. As well as in the health board,
school board and pre-qualification bids committees’ involvement and it should be recognized by the
local government units. The Philippines as the oldest democratic state in Southeast Asia, civil society
shared long history together with it. Civil society became the strength and the voice of the people
during the Marcos regime. They are the one who called the support of the people to stand up
against the authoritarian rule of the Macoses that lead to the people power revolution or what is
also known as the EDSA revolution that result to ouster the Marcos regime. Civil society became part
of all of these, from pain, sorrow; happiness and triumph civil society are there to help the people
and protecting their rights as individual of the state. However not all the time civil society have a
positive look to the people sometimes these organization became the contributor and a hindrance
to national government.
First the contribution of civil society to national development, civil society in the Philippines
matter in many ways especially in national development. During the Marcos regime organized civil
society groups help the opposition team in leading against the Marcoses. Organization from
churches, human rights and environmental groups called out and support the opposition to ouster
the Marcoses because of its bad record in human rights violation and corruption. After the Marcos
regime civil society groups became more powerful and important to the national development of
the Philippines. The 1987 constitution recognized the important role of civil society in the shaping
the life of the people and the state. A decade later civil society again lead the revolution against the
Estrada administration, they see Estrada to be unfit to become the president of the Philippine. The
revolt of civil society organization leads again to the people power revolution or EDSA II revolution.
In the following years civil society engaged in various sector of society. Civil society and
nongovernmental organization engaged in helping farmers to fight for their land and provide free
legal services to the poor farmers. The Philippine Partnership for the Development of Human
Resources in Rural Areas started in 1983 as a coalition of 20 non-governmental organizations which
were working in rural communities. It actively involved in the promotion of the agrarian reform and
rural development at all levels. In 2008, together with the Asian NGO Coalition for Agrarian Reform
and Rural Development, it organized the Land Watch Philippines Intersectoral Meeting on Land and
Water Access of the Rural Poor to validate the Philippines Country Strategy Paper. The Paper is
designed to: review the policy and legal environment on access to land and tenurial security, assess
past contributions and current efforts of different sectors to address land issues; and identify
opportunities, challenges and strategies in effectively advancing access to land and tenurial security
of disadvantaged land dependent users.1 Aside from that civil society like the People’s Campaign for
Agrarian Reform Network is a national coalition of 15 civil-society organizations involved in agrarian
reform advocacy. It was established in 1997 in response to the need to distribute private agricultural
lands under the governments Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. It has raised the visibility of

1
http://www.fao.org/gender-landrights-database/country-profiles/countries-list/civil-society-
organizations/en/?country_iso3=PHL
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land reform and increased the participation of women and landless farmers in national decision-
making by linking the efforts of communities, farmers’ associations and civil-society organizations.
In addition to that civil society also provides free legal assistance to the framers affected by the
agrarian reform by the department of agrarian reform.

In terms of politics civil society groups and nongovernmental organization shared power in
the lower house of the congress. Civil society groups composed 20% of the representatives in the
lower house. They participate and part of different committee which decides the different issues and
problems of the state. They also create laws that can help people to elevate their life against poverty
and maintain their power to the congress. In environmental issues civil society together with
nongovernmental organization and the government keep finding solution to fight the effect of
climate change. Civil society groups advocate the use of renewable energy in order to lessen the
effect of climate change. They pressured the government to act immediately to mitigate climate
change. Beside from that civil society engaged in partnership with local government unit in fighting
illegal logging, illegal fishing and other forms of illegal works that can affect the environment. Civil
society must developed science and technology and self-control of human behaviour in order to
protect planet earth. (Tellegen, 1998) Furthermore civil society provides seminars and business
forum regarding on small and medium enterprise. Civil society provides information, training and
knowledge to people about business. They help people who are willing to start a small business so
that it can contribute to economic development of the Philippines, because civil society believes that
small and medium enterprise maybe the possible solution to reduce unemployment and poverty.
We can see that civil society contributes an important role in national development in the
Philippines. Civil society groups engage in different areas of society and sector of community from
agriculture, environment politics, economy, human rights and many more. They provide services and
aid to the people especially the marginalized and helpless in the society. According to the Security
and Exchange Commission, the Philippines are one of the countries which have a huge number of
registered civil society and nongovernmental organization in the world. Primarily majority of this
organization focused on national development, political organization and human rights protection of
the people.
Second civil societies as a hindrance to national development, not all civil society are good
and advocate the truth because sometimes civil society is used to become a hindrance to national
development. Civil society actors and opposition political parties have somewhat divergent interests
in terms of the empowerment of legislatures as counterweights. Both have a stake in monitoring the
government in power and empowering legislative oversight is one of the most important means. For
most opposition parties, however, this interest is primarily instrumental. Their leaders do not
necessarily want to institutionalize such checks and balances, in case they should come to power
someday. Moreover, they have an interest in bolstering legislative autonomy not only from the
executive, but from voters as well. In contrast to parties, civil society organizations usually do not
seek to govern. They therefore face fewer inherent conflicts of interest and can play critical roles in
keeping opposition parties accountable should they come to power2. We can understand that civil
society has also a hidden agenda in order to gain more power and control to the government. After
the Marcos regime civil society emerged as an important sector of society. Former President
Corazon Aquino appoints some member of civil society groups in her cabinet same with Joseph
Estrada. But these civil society members used their power to allocate government funds to their
organization. From that time civil society positive outlook to the people were minimized. Civil society
and nongovernment organization in the Philippines tend to engage in corruption because majority of
civil society and nongovernmental organization funds rely on donation from politician and private
individuals. Sometimes these donations that particularly came from politicians are used not for the
benefit of the organizations but also for own benefit of the politician. In the case of three Senator
Estrada, Enrile and Revillia they used government funds to allocate into a questionable
2
https://kellogg.nd.edu/faculty/research/pdfs/Fox.pdf
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nongovernmental organizations. Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, Sen Jinggoy Estrada, Sen
Ramon "Bong" Revilla Jr, and former Buhay Rep Rene Velarde used their pork barrel to help what
turned out to be a dubious nongovernment organization, according to a 2011 Commission on Audit
report. A total of P194.7 million of Priority Development and Assistance Fund or pork barrel was
funnelled to a certain Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc. , which the COA found questionable. It should
have been disqualified as recipient of government funds. Enrile, Estrada, Revilla and Velarde
allocated a total of P206-M to the Department of Agriculture. The department later released P201
million of the funds to a certain ZNAC Rubber Estate Corp, which gave P195 million to
Pangkabuhayan Foundation Inc. The NGO is the final recipient (Rappler.com, 3:14 PM, February 27,
2013). Aside from that civil society sometimes used to organized conflicts against the government
which is not beneficial to the people. They suppressed the government in favour of them and for
their own interest. For example, some civil society and nongovernmental organizations in Mindanao
supports rebel groups and armed conflicts which result to a divided society and promote disunity in
the regions. Civil society also used the organization to provide wrong information to the people. In
politics civil society is always the barrier why some laws and treaties cannot be passed or amend
easily. Civil society always questioned and dissent against the majority if they know that it is not
beneficial for them. Self-interest and power sometimes changed our advocacy that result to conflict
and division in the society.
Indeed we cannot hide that civil society has an important role in national development of
the state and individuals. They are the voice of the marginalized and protector of democracy. They
are created to find solutions to problems and to encourage people to interact with the society. We
recognized them because they play an important role in communities and countries as partners for
change by promoting and supporting values and principles, including the freedom of association and
peaceful assembly, and in achieving development goals. But we also find out that not all civil society
and nongovernmental organizations in the Philippines are for the good of the people. Sometimes
they are partners in crime by those corrupt political officials and become hindrance to national
development. Yes it is true that civil society is made to balance and monitor the power of the
government and to represent the marginalized in society. But sometimes they also become part of
the problems. Civil society must reject all the illegal forms of corruption that can destroy them. Civil
society focused only on helping the people that maybe results to a healthy and peaceful community.
Civil society should do more in order good in order to inspire more people lives and used their
organization as a defender of the truth and marginalized in society. They must not forget what they
are fighting and believing for during the Marcos regime so that their advocacy for a peace society wil
not be vanished.

Works Cited
(n.d.). https://kellogg.nd.edu/faculty/research/pdfs/Fox.pdf.

Rappler.com. (3:14 PM, February 27, 2013). Enrile, Estrada used pork for dubious NGO - COA. Manila
.

Tellegen, E. (1998). Society and Its Environment: An Introduction .

http://www.fao.org/gender-landrights-database/country-profiles/countries-list/civil-society-
organizations/en/?country_iso3=PHL
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